BKCMVRDM.RVW 20041010 "Computer Viruses for Dummies", Peter Gregory, 2004, 0-7645-7418-3, U$14.99/C$21.99/UK#9.99 %A Peter Gregory peter.gregory@hartgregorygroup.com %C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8 %D 2004 %G 0-7645-7418-3 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. %O U$14.99/C$21.99/UK#9.99 416-236-4433 fax: 416-236-4448 %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764574183/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764574183/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764574183/robsladesin03-20 %P 274 p. %T "Computer Viruses for Dummies" This book isn't really about computer viruses. The introduction contains an awkwardly worded paragraph in Gregory refuses to define computer viruses, but makes it clear that he intends, in common with Humpty-Dumpty, to use the term "virus" in whichever way he chooses. Mostly he chooses to use it to mean "lots of things that can be annoying to your computing, including malware, spam, and other circumstances." To the non-specialist this might seem to be an advantage. After all, who cares what you call the problem as long as you're protected from it? Unfortunately, the different types of Bad Things out there work in different ways. So why tell the reader to use a firewall, and avoid getting their addresses on spam lists, when neither technology has anything to do with protecting you against viruses? Part one is supposed to allow you to evaluate your virus situation. Chapter one, which purports to give you the information necessary to understand virus risks, contains a lot of generally irrelevant material, such as the various versions of Windows. (It is ironic that the most meager entry given is that for Windows XP, since XP was actually an important increase in virus risk. The internal structure of the operating system makes it harder to clean and protect--DCOM is more difficult to shut off, and System Restore makes it harder to get rid of risky utilities--and the increased wealth of hiding places makes disinfection much more problematic.) The symptoms listed in chapter two are not reliable indicators of the presence; or absence; of a virus. The section that repeats much of the content of chapter one is peculiar. The book is intended for, err ..., average to novice computer users, so having a chapter telling you how to find out if your computer actually has antiviral software already installed is possibly a good thing. But chapter three spends an awful lot of time telling you things about icons, and not as much time on how you might determine the version or signature update status. Part two is concerned with actually protecting yourself. Chapter four suggests a reasonable process for installing new antiviral software once you have it. First, however, there is some questionable advice in regard to choosing said software. "Reputable" is not an easily quantifiable term: the ordinary user is going to have a hard time distinguishing between "is highly functional" and "costs a lot and has the biggest, brightest boxes and ads." In addition, Gregory strongly promotes the idea of bundled packages, without noting that such applications seldom have the "best of breed" in all categories, or that a failure in one component can often turn off the whole suite. Again, since this book is aimed at the typical user, chapter five's review of configuration options is not altogether useful: it does not always point out the dangers of certain actions. Chapter six, on scanning your computer and email, has very little helpful material. Dealing with infections, in chapter seven, is somewhat better. The content regarding interpretation of warning messages is worthwhile. But the terse accounts of modifying the Registry and restoring or re- installing files may lead readers into difficulty. Part three deals with maintenance of protection. Chapter eight, regarding updating of signatures, does not seem to have much value, and nine, on patching, really only has a couple of useful pages, and those only for Windows and Office. Firewalls and anti-spyware programs are important, but chapter ten fails to note how much you need to know about network traffic in order to effectively use a firewall, and that anti-spyware scanners don't detect viruses and vice versa. Some reasonable guidance on protecting your PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is given in chapter eleven. Chapter twelve suggests making backups of your data, and has a few other points that might make you a bit safer. (I'd propose that telling people not to open attachments and avoid P2P/file sharing systems would result in better safety.) Part four is supposed to tell us more about what viruses are. Chapter thirteen is a not-terribly-reliable history. (BRAIN was not the first, Concept was not a polymorph [and came later, anyway], and during the heyday of BBSes the dominant viruses were boot sector infectors--which couldn't be spread by BBSes. Also, it is highly ironic that Gregory seems to imply that the Norton product was the first antivirus--since Peter Norton spent over year telling people that viruses were a myth and computer users should not foolishly give their money to those antivirus-product-selling scammers.) (I agree with Gregory on the virus writers, though.) Other types of malware and scams are briefly discussed in chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen has a little (and old) information on virus operations, and some other miscellaneous stuff. Part five is the usual "Part of Tens," this time giving us nine myths and an actual situation (there are *way* more than ten myths), and minimal information about ten antivirals. This book is addressed to people who aren't interested in viruses, and wouldn't want to read a book about viruses. (Which makes for an interesting marketing challenge.) It is difficult to say that nobody would ever benefit from reading this text. But it is much harder to envisage a situation in which this circumscribed data would save the day, and really easy to imagine situations in which the little information in this tome could be a very dangerous thing. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2004 BKCMVRDM.RVW 20041010